Judex Okoro, Calabar

The Independent National Electoral Commission has clarified that the results of the 2019 presidential poll will be transmitted electronically in order to minimise incidence disagreement in the elections.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Dr Frankland Briyai, who disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists in Calabar, said the commission would be recruiting over 15, 000 ad hoc staff for presidential/legislative elections next month.

He said they had taken delivery of non-sensitive materials like ballot boxes and generating sets from their zonal office in Port Harcourt and there would be generating sets in all the wards in the state.

Reacting to procedures for the presidential election he said: “Results will be transmitted from the polling units electronically and the result box will also be carried physically by the collation officers.

“When the collation officer comes with the physical result, it will be confirmed with the electronic results in the presence of the party agents and INEC staff.

“It is only when the physical result and the electronic results correspond that it will be approved by the party agents that the results will be accepted.

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“Our smart card readers have been enhanced and upgraded. We have tested them at Osun, Ekiti as well as Anambra central senatorial district. In Anambra State, the failure rate was about 0.0%, in Osun State, I did not hear of any smart card failure.

“In our bye-election in Obudu, there was no smart card failure. The reason is that at each polling unit, we have technicians that fix these smart card readers in case of any challenge.

“One of the problems we discovered over time was that the ad hoc staff did not know how to use the smart card readers appropriately and so this time around, we are going to have a series of training for them so that they can be very proficient in the use of the card readers,” he stated.

In case the smart card reader fails, the REC said as long as a voter’s name and passport are there, the person would be allowed to vote, adding that they will just thick the column on the incident form and off you.

Unlike the last general elections, the REC said prospective voters would vote immediately after accreditation and there would be no separate time for accreditation and voting.

He said in order to address the problem of logistics and late commencement of voting, the commission had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Union of Road Transport Workers and its sister organisation to help convey materials and personnel timely to the respective locations.